Ed's Note: We're taking a look at what I consider to be the five biggest problems facing black America today in an effort to no be reactive. Nos. 3 thru will appear over the next few days.
Strippers dancing on poles during an awards show. Do I really need to type much more? I don't but I will.
I know this station is about its bottom line, but president Deborah Lee needs have her morals renewed. Selling out for the almighty dollar is not what Black America needs to see. Black society of the mind-20th century prided itself on valuing self above the dollar.
That's why the Montgomery bus boycotts were successful. That's why the civil rights movement was successful.
But we're at a point where BET, which unfortunately is the black man's pilot, and most of the free-thinking world's pilot as well, for life. People watch BET for the trends in hip hop, and follow them. BET understands that it is a cash cow for its boss Viacom and not a free-thinking entity itself, thus we have the emergence of the Buffoonery and Exploitation Television.
No BET News. No Talk with Tavis (or some other reputable figure). No educational entertainment.
Instead we get our fill of awards shows with women dancing on stripper poles on stages. Videos with a hybrid form of English. A top 10 countdown show voted on by the teens who watch the show, which only perpetuates and substantiates the ignorance all over again. The only thing about BET that you can say is positive? At least UnCut is of the air (did anyone else catch Snoop Dogg, who is dealing with his own issues these days, saying tha he wanted to bring Uncut back).
The Solution: A boycott would be nice, but won't happen. But we need these things in a Black Entertainment Network.
1. An in-depth black news magazine hour once a week.
2. A daily 30-minute newscast that doesn't totally depend on CNN and AP feeds for its reports. 3. A one-on-one talk show like Tavis once had.
4. A thirty-minute Round table with four different figures in Black America from different walks of our spectrum to account once a week with their opinions on the happenings of the week in relevance to Black America.
5. Solid Black entertainment like the Girlfriends re-runs that showcase Black America in a progressive, yet still comedic light.
6. A weekly show dedicated to spoken word during a prime time hour.
To do these things, someone must buy BET from Viacom because Viacom doesn't quite care about "black people" much in the same way GWB does. It's not direct, but you can definitely see the effort lacking.
|